A large low pressure system is bringing unstable weather conditions to most of the North Island today, resulting in downpours, thunderstorms (some severe) but also a mixture of dry and drizzly/lighter areas.

Low pressure systems like this are well known for “breaking” your local forecast, this is due to the instability the lower air pressure creates – and then our mountains and ranges play a role too. This means very heavy downpours can occur in one spot, while only a short distance away it may be sunny and dry. Understanding this will lead you to watching the rain radar and understanding where these main areas of heavy rain and thunderstorms are tracking across the day, to make sense of it all.

Otherwise, put simply, there is some wind and rain (over the North Island and upper South Island today/tonight) with it clearing the country on Thursday, gone by the end of tomorrow.

The weekend has west to north-west winds returning, which means many places will be warmer/hotter and drier going into Sunday. We have your NZ forecast through to Tuesday next week.